The Reminiscing Fox
by Gyokuyou-no-Kuugen
Summary: This is a companion piece to The Unlucky Fox, containing snippets of the main character's life.
1. Table for Six

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other franchise mentioned.**

**This is the companion piece to The Unlucky Fox. If you have not read that story, than this one won't make much sense at all.**

**Like I mentioned in my other story, I tend to be pretty busy so my updates definitely won't always be consistent (or often). **

**Let me know if you spot any errors, and leave a review if you liked it. ;)**

**EDIT: I made some tweaks to the chapters. May or may not be noticeable.**

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**The Reminiscing Fox **

**Chapter 1 - Table for Six**

**_Age 5_**

I had always been somewhat of a wild child in my past life; I loved to explore the forests, climb trees, catch tadpoles, and play with the local wildlife. My original family always thought it was weird that I seemed to prefer the company of animals to people. The fact of the matter is, I simply did not trust people in my past life (excluding close family). Sure, I still made a few friends, but deep down I never dropped my guard. It was a lesson I had learned as a child; People were cruel. That's why I preferred animals and nature.

It was only natural that this love of nature carried on to my next life.

I was currently in the woods by the Uchiha compound, atop my favorite tree holding a bag of leaves (Why the bag you ask? You'll see). It was autumn, turning the leaves lovely shades of yellows, oranges, and reds. Autumn had always been my favorite season because of this.

I sighed in contentment, leaning further into the tall maple tree. The cool breeze was making me sleepy, and I doubtlessly would have fallen asleep if I hadn't heard my father calling me.

"Musume!" he barked not too far away from my tree, not having yet noticed my exact position. If there was one thing I was good at, it was masking my presence and being very sneaky in general (it drove my occasional guards nuts too).

An impish grin crept onto my face. I waited until my disgruntled father was directly under the tree, and then I poured the leaves onto his head. I started snickering when my now twice as disgruntled father peered up at me witheringly.

"Musume..." he growled, leaves sticking out of his black mane.

"Yeeess?" I replied playfully, jumping from the tree to the ground in front of him.

Madara looked torn between popping me on the head or simply continuing to glare at me balefully. He eventually settled for letting out an exasperated sigh that reminded me of the noise a tired billy goat might make. I instantly imagined a goat with my father's hair style and busted out laughing like a maniac.

...I laughed out loud didn't I?

The 'what the hell have you been smoking' look on his face made it obvious.

"Just get inside. Your mother will have a fit if we're late for dinner again," he grumbled irritably.

"Sure, Dad," I cackled, earning an eye-roll.

When we arrived, my mother and Aunt Mito were almost finished setting up the table. My mother took a moment to smile at me, which I reciprocated.

_'Oh yeah. My Aunt and Uncle are eating with us today'_ I remembered. _'...and my other Uncle, Tobirama, but he's not important,'_ I added jokingly.

As soon as they noticed me, Hashirama gave me a wave and a goofy grin and my Aunt greeted me warmly. I greeted them back, smiling.

Tobirama ignored me. Ass.

My father prodded me out of the doorframe and strode in like he was trying to look as awesome as possible in front of my Uncles.

Too bad he forgot to get the leaves out of his hair, making him look ridiculous.

Hashirama let out a strangled laugh he saw Madara, but covered it up with an over-exaggerated cough. Even Tobirama looked like he was desperately trying not to burst out into a fit of (not so) manly giggles at Madara's attempted (and failed) posturing.

My mother and her sister, however, immediately fell into a bout of shameless laughter at his expense.

Needless to say Madara was not amused in the slightest, and he made sure to give me the stink-eye as he went outside to get the leaves out of his hair. Hey, at least I had the decency to look sheepish.

I'd be lying if I said dinner was uneventful, but what else would you expect when you have Madara, Tobirama, and Hashirama in a room together?

Honestly, I had expected Hashirama to have better aim too.

Things went downhill when Hashirama got into a retarded argument with his brother, when Tobirama insulted his terrible singing skills. How did this conversation on my uncle's tone-deafness start you ask? I have no idea to be honest.

Well, Hashirama is pretty sensitive about his not-so-awesome singing, so he responded with all the maturity of a 4th grader.

He threw a wad of his sticky rice at his brother.

The problem is he missed and the rice went sailing into my father's hair (which he had recently rid of the leaves). Have you ever seen two grown men get into a cat fight at the dinner table? It was complete with swearing, hair pulling, and eye poking too. I looked over to Tobirama, who had his face firmly planted in one of his hands, and to my mother and aunt who had a look of murder in their eyes.

Check please...

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**Hope you enjoyed.**


	2. Cookies

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other franchise mentioned.**

**Thanks to the one person who left a review!**

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**Chapter 2 - Cookies**

**Age 4**

'_This sucks,' _I thought sullenly.

I had been trying to get leaves to stick to me with chakra for the past 4 hours. It wasn't going so well, considering I had more chakra than most my age.

It certainly didn't help that it was a hot summer day; the heat was sweltering even in the shade!

"It should be illegal for this to be so hard," I grumbled under my breath, rubbing sweat off my face.

"Keep practicing," my father responded evenly. He had been staring at me the entire time I had been practicing too. It made me wonder if he could sleep with his eyes open or something (because watching fail at sticking leaves to myself for 4 hours _had_ to be boring as all hell); it wouldn't surprise me to be honest.

I would have complained more, but I knew he wouldn't take that too well. I sighed and continued.

"She's been practicing for four hours, Madara. She's just a child, so give her a break already" my mother said walking up to us, her red hair in a high ponytail.

'_Yes! Mom to the rescue!' _I thought excitedly.

"She has to learn, Mio," he replied, leaving no room for argument...for most people anyway, but my mother wasn't most people.

She was an Uzumaki woman. It was her way or the highway, mighty Uchiha warlord be damned.

"Give her a break," my mother repeated, her eyes narrowed.

Madara looked ready to retort, but then sighed. "Fine. She gets a two hour break, but then I expect her to come back and finish this exercise."

"Thanks Dad! I'll get it right after I get back from my break!" I chirped, taking my mother's hand and following her back inside.

"Let's bake cookies!" my mother told me cheerily, pushing some of her vibrant red hair from her face.

"Okay!"

"Great!" She then proceeded to drag me along, chatting animatedly with me. She reminded me of a kid sometimes. My mother was very kindhearted, lively, and playful. It was almost impossible to dislike her; her chakra in particular always filled me with warmth. It reminded me of field of wildflowers in the spring, vibrant and so alive.

Sure, she had the classic Uzumaki temper, but I still wished I could be more like her.

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

I smiled brightly at her.

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**Hope you enjoyed.**


	3. Face Plant

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other franchise mentioned.**

**Here's a new snippet of Musume's life. Again, you need to read "The Unlucky Fox" before reading this.**

**Thanks to any who reviewed.**

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**Chapter 3 - Face Plant**

_Age 2_

I have to admit, it was nice to understand the language a bit more; I still had a long way to go, but hey, it was progress.

I still couldn't read much though, as my parents hadn't taught me yet, and I was essentially working off two year's worth of Japanese classes.

My mother, Mio, spent a lot of her time with me which I appreciated. It was boring as hell otherwise, what with me being an adult mind stuck in a baby body after all (how the hell does that even work anyway?). My mother was the one who most often taught me things, and she honestly seemed to enjoy doing so.

Madara, my *shudder* _father_ sometimes did too, but tended to treat it as more of an obligation. In other words, he was serious and stern for the most part when he taught me.

I get the feeling he had absolutely no idea how to act around children, not that I was at all surprised.

Having him as a father wasn't all bad though. Sure, he wasn't even near as lovable as my mother (had the emotional range of a cactus, really), but he did seem fond of me in his own way. He would sometimes carry me around, talk to me, or even set me on his lap while he was reading or writing. I think he really appreciated that I was very quiet and non-hyper for a toddler as well.

Sometimes it was almost hard to believe this man who would rub my head affectionately whenever I pleased him and even occasionally slightly smile at me would turn out to be such a nut in the Manga.

Funnily enough, he had been trying quite hard recently to get me to speak. The small pouts on his face when I remained silent were pretty funny, and I totally giggled in his face whenever it happened. The fact that I already knew two entirely different languages (English and Spanish), and only a little Japanese made it a bit difficult for me to pick up. Because of this general frustration and confusion, I had decided to be completely silent for the first two years of my new life while I tried to learn the language.

I did practice speaking Japanese to myself when I knew no one else was in earshot though. Why did I remain silent in front of others you ask? I'm just weird like that I guess...and totally not because I wanted to troll my family by finally speaking somewhat well (within reason for my biological age) out of the blue.

Speaking of which.

I shifted my attention back to Madara when I realized he was trying to get my attention. He was talking to me and, from what I gathered, was trying to get me to get me to say my first words.

Should I say something babyish just to please him? Naaaah.

I opted for staring at him while grinning cheekily. I wanted to laugh when I saw how put-out he looked at my silence.

A pouty Madara was a truly hilarious thing to behold.

Personally, I wanted my first words to be something hilarious, and I got my chance when Hashirama visited the next day.

The Hokage was a fun guy, and I always enjoyed his visits. As a hilarious plus, he and my father tended to get into bizarre arguments over stupid shit and the occasional catfight much to my great amusement, and everyone's else's great exasperation. It was during one of these increasingly noisy catfights that I spoke.

"Shut up!" I exclaimed from where I was sitting.

Their reactions were priceless.

Madara froze and stared at me as if I had grown a second head and told him his hair sucks. His absolutely dumfounded and shocked expression had me battling myself to keep from laughing.

Hashirama's reaction? Madara's sudden cease of movement sent him stumbling, and he tripped and fell face first...

...right into my mother's chest.

My mother, who had entered the room the moment after I spoke, ended up decking poor Hashirama in retaliation. Of course Madara's reaction to having Hashirama face plant into his wife's breasts wasn't much better.

Best first words.

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**Hope you enjoyed.**


	4. The Cranky Uncle

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other franchise mentioned.**

**Since I just updated the main story, I thought I'd throw in a chapter for this one while I was at it. It's like 2 in the morning, so there might be errors lol.**

**Thanks to those who took the time to review.**

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**Chapter 4 - The Cranky Uncle**

_Age 5_

My uncle, Tobirama, wasn't very fond of me in the beginning, though it was probably because he wasn't very fond of children in general. The guy literally had no idea what to do around them, and damn was it sad (and awkward) to witness. The fact that I was an Uchiha probably didn't help in the slightest either.

Tobirama was also even quieter and stuffier than my father, which was saying something. Seriously.

Speaking of which, since I had first started speaking, Madara had actually gotten a good bit more talkative with me. At first it was probably because he wanted to continue teaching me how to speak, but he later seemed to actually enjoy conversing with me. My father had recently told me it was because I was the most intelligent conversation around, which I couldn't help but laugh at. When my father lightly smiled at me in response, I couldn't help but feel a great affection towards him.

Anyway, even though Tobirama didn't care much for me in the beginning, I never gave up trying to interact with him. I'm stubborn like no one's business after all. This, of course, was usually met with an awkward, forced indifference much to my exasperation.

My father, funnily enough, seemed to look forward to the times I would bother my silver-haired uncle for attention, solely because he found Tobirama's ensuing discomfort humorous. My father found great enjoyment in hassling Tobirama, and often went out of his way to irritate him with me in tow more often than not (which was actually kind of entertaining for me too, though I'd never admit it to my cranky uncle).

"Hey Dad, what's Uncle Tobirama's deal anyway? He's such a stuffy, cranky guy," I asked my father one day in our living room.

Madara looked up from the book he was reading and regarded me bemusedly. "Don't let it bother you, Musume, I'm fairly certain he was born stuffy and disgruntled."

"Yeah? Man, that's depressing. Do you think I should go and try to cheer him up?" I chirped, a small, somewhat mischievous grin on my face.

My father, instantly amused, matched my grin before replying, "Oh, I do believe he would appreciate it. You should call him 'Uncle Tobi' while you're at it too. He'll_ really_ love that one," he softly cackled.

"Sounds good to me," I laughed, "I'll be back soon, dad!"

"Have fun," I heard him drawl as I headed out of the house and into the rest of the compound.

I kept a brisk pace through the Uchiha compound, waving animatedly to some of my clansmen as I went. Some responded with kind greetings and waves, but most seemed pretty indifferent.

Yeesh, my clan was _dull. _Like, 'watching paint dry to the sound of elevator music' dull.

After exiting the compound, I made a beeline to where I could sense Tobirama. He was, from what I could tell, hanging around the outside of the Hokage tower.

As a sensor himself, he detected me before I got close, and I could see him regarding me resignedly when he came into view.

"Good morning, Uncle!" I told him cheerily.

"..."

I raised an eyebrow and continued to stare at him expectantly.

"...Morning..." he finally grumbled.

Good grief. Forget cheering this guy up, what he needed was a lecture on manners or something. Of course, I wasn't exactly the epitome of manners either, but I digress.

"Uncle Tobi, you can't ignore me forever ya'know!" I told him, crossing my small arms and staring up at him with a sardonic dryness that my uncle would never have expected from a five year old. Tobirama's brief, consternated expression at his nickname was classic. He eventually settled for grunting noncommittally.

"Come on Uncle Tobi, really? I get enough of those types of responses from my clansmen. You aren't related, are you?" I said, looking suspiciously at him. Tobirama let out a strangled cough, and I couldn't help but grin cheekily at him.

"Of course I'm not related to one of _them_," he replied, sounding mildly affronted. I found his offended comment amusing, but decided to mess with him a bit. Dad would've wanted it that way. I cackled inwardly.

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?" I said in a hurt tone, busting out my greatest weapon; 'Kicked-Puppy-Eyes-no-Justu.' Even Madara couldn't handle that shit, no joke.

Tobirama instantly looked highly uncomfortable and disturbed, and I was willing to bet that if he was inside where there were windows, he would have jumped out of one just to escape.

"No, that's not- I didn't-" Tobirama stuttered, still beyond uncomfortable under my almighty Jutsu. If I wasn't trying to keep my composure before, the fact that he actually _stuttered_ had me fighting to keep back my incredulity. He _never _stuttered.

...Then again, he hardly ever talked around me either. _'He can talk? To people? Like in a conversation?'_ I thought to myself in sarcastic amusement.

I forced tears to collect in my eyes as I continued to look at him with an expression that I hoped still looked sad. "Come on now, there's no need for that," my uncle said beseechingly. He groaned wearily like the long suffering. "I'm...sorry, alright? So cut that out."

"Okay!" I chirped, smiling happily. My mood whiplash took Tobirama completely off guard, and he actually stared at me confounded, with his mouth hung open like someone had just told him that Hashirama was actually his mother.

"Ne, Uncle Tobi, you'll catch flies like that," I told him, still smiling. His mouth snapped shut and he glared at me in mild annoyance.

"You weren't actually offended the whole time," he stated sardonically.

"What makes you think that?" I replied easily.

"Call it a hunch." He regarded me quietly for a few minutes after that, before speaking at length, "You act more like an Uzumaki than an Uchiha. I suppose I can expect further mischief from you in the future?" His tone was dry.

"Maa, who knows?" I told him before he shook his head and turned around to quickly head inside the tower. He was probably worried about leaving his brother alone to his own devices for too long. I chuckled at the thought. Uncle Hashirama was a handful, no doubt. I turned to face my father as soon as I felt him approach. I had been aware of his relative closeness while I was interacting with Tobirama, but ultimately chalked it up to him wanting to see the other man's discomfort in person (and perhaps to also make sure I didn't get into trouble). My uncle was doubtlessly aware of his presence too, even though he never showed it during our dialogue.

"Now _that_ was amusing," he drawled, looking down at me. He pretty much never showed any emotions in public (that's an Uchiha for you), but I could see the laughter in his dark eyes.

"Do you think it cheered him up?" I asked lightly.

Madara snorted, before taking my hand to try and lead me back to the compound.

'Try' being the word, because the moment I saw the ramen stand I was dragging him through the street towards it with a strength that he would later claim was inhuman.

Madara groaned when he saw the destination, and immediately protested...only to be hit full blast by my 'Kicked-Puppy-Eyes-no-Justu.' He flinched.

He never stood a chance.

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Hope you enjoyed.


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